Ok, so I make stirfry for the family here about once a week .. it is great because everyone will eat it ( 2 regular vegetarians, 1 lowcarb vegetarian, and 1 dedicated meateater). It is one of the few dishes we all eat, lol!

So we all love mung bean sprouts that you buy at the supermarket in our stirfry and once many years ago, I figured out you can order meals at some asian restaurants on top of a bed of sauteed mung beans instead of rice or noodles and the flavors are just perfect being as they are used in asian cooking ..

Well, so I invariably go to the market and either they are out of sprouts, or they only have very small highpriced bags, and/or you get the beg home and they go bad in a day or two, so I decided to investigate sprouting my own on the net .. The results were amazing!!!! Despite multiple warnings about how much skinnier they would be, and not look like the supermarket sprouts, I found mine to be very similar in texture and flavor. The big difference being that I could not get all the green skins washed out of the sprouts before using them in cooking.

.. and the true test, no squeals of disgust from my teen or preteen who do not generally put up with my food experimentation, lololol! Later when I have time, I will give more specifics of what I did, the pan I used (a vegetable steamer pan), etc.

I tried sprouting broccoli last year. Though I love broccoli, the broccoli sprouts had such a strong, unpleasant (to me) flavor that I ended up throwing most of the sprouts away and giving away the rest of the seeds.

That said, I still have my sprouting jar, so I've been thinking about trying something else. I think I'll give this a try. Thanks!

Ta Da, I read your comment on the main board about sprouting. I have never entered the vegetarian threads before and frankly didn't realize they existed.

Anyway, I am a sprouter too. I have often wondered if there were others on the LC forum but haven't asked. Right now I have broccoli sprouts in progress. I too love mung bean sprouts. I have also sprouted red clover, peas, daikon radish, and alfalfa.

I think if you post on the main board, we might get more sprouters out from hiding. I doubt many of us meat lovers are checking out the vegetarian posts. lol

Tea Cup - it is great to meet someone who has done this before .. and often! What are broccoli sprouts like? and where do you get your seeds? I got my mung beans at the regular supermarket in the asian section (I'll post pictures, etc etc soon in here). Are any of the other sprouts you mention good in cooking or are they mostly for raw use??!!

On the other subject ... A post on the main board would be great for the reasons you mention, but it would get moved somewhere else .. like the recipe board or the natural organic board since sprouting seeds/beans wouldn't be on topic for the main board. It is relevant to vegetarians like me since asian-style stirfries have always been vegetarian fare .. especially with tofu, tempeh, or the fake meat products added .. well, and of course salads and sprouts, etc. If you can find another good place to post about sprouting, do let me know -- you should try and start a thread .. I definitely will join in! but it is nice to have a vegetarian-themed one too ...

I just found that mung bean sprouts are also used in Indian cooking (!!!) and have been inspired to try some new Indian vegetarian recipes too .. and maybe make my own paneer cheese .. very exciting stuff!!!!!! lol!!!!!! especially if I can figure out how to do some of it with my crockpot!

I'm very excited to see you've tried sprouting. I like mung bean sprouts and haven't given them one single thought since I went back to low carb 4 months ago. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for more information on how it's done!

My bean sprouts turned out just okay. I think the house may have been too warm because before they had much size to them, they were already sprouting leaves, so I had to end the process. I didn't think they tasted much like the bean sprouts I'm used to.

I almost didn't make the egg foo young, but I ended up sticking with the original plan, rather than try to figure out what else we could have for dinner tonight (one of my least favorite activities).

The sprouts themselves may not have been great tasting, but they made a very tasty egg foo young!

Mix all the ingredients (except the oil) together.
Heat a large pan or wok over high heat for 1 minute.
Add oil and heat until smoking.
Place a large spoonful of the mixture in the hot oil.
flatten gently and brown lightly on both sides.
Repeat - a spoonful or 4 at a time - until done.

I sprinkled some soy sauce on at the table. Yum.
Can't tell you how surprised I was at how much I liked this!

the egg foo yung sounds awesome Marg! I have a batch sprouting right now .. for stirfry later this week but I am so tempted by your recipe, lol! i find the flavor has been very good and they do get to a good size, etc. I keep mine entirely in the dark, wrapped in a wet towel.. kind of hard to explain. I have this interesting pan. The bottom of the pan is normal, and a second pan fits into the top and has holes in it and the lid goes on top of it. I bought it originally to steam vegetables.

I soak the mung beans overnight, rinse in the morning. Then I place a clean dishtowel in the top pan (with holes) and pour the beans on top. I take the dishtowel flaps and place them over the beans (they are wet-ish), and then place the lid top on to it.

Every few hours I uncover the beans, take the faucet and spray water over the beans. I allow the water to drip through and I drain it. I cover the beans back over with the dishtowel and the lid.

Mine do not really grow leaves .. more like the teensy tiny ones in the market. And, mine grow thick like in the market - I think because i make a big point of not disturbing the layer of beans and they grow inside the mass and do not really get exposed at all to light, etc.

just a few thoughts!! I have some pix too that I took last batch and will post when I have a few minutes.

Your method sounds interesting and not at all what I did. I used a sprouting jar. It sounds like you bought your pans (for a different purpose) but I can't picture what you're talking about as something I've seen in any store, or even online.

The sproutpeople website demo uses two cups, nested, so it sounds very similar to your method. The top cup has holes in the bottom. I knew I was taking a bit of a chance using a sprouting jar. Everytime I rinsed them they were disturbed, which the sproutpeople (and now, you) say to avoid. I had the jar on it's side.

I bought my sprouting jar late last year and that's around the time I found the sproutpeople website. My impulse was to buy lots of different sprouting tools, but my kitchen is so small and we're actually in the mode of getting rid of stuff so we can list our house soon. I'd like to get into microgreens, but that takes a bit of space, I think.

Here's a photo of the beans. I still have a lot left, even after the EFY. This is my first attempt to attach photos, so I hope it works.

Marg, it is a random pan I bought at a salvage store years ago and looks like calphalon, but is kind of like this:

I found this one at Amazon. It is the Farberware Classic Stack 'N Steam 3-Quart Saucepot and Steamer for $25 .. My pan is pretty big though .. not sure how it compares to this one. I also saw bamboo steamers online and I think those could be used in a similiar manner, but over a bowl or something to catch any drips, etc ..

After trial and error, I found that 1/3 to 1/2 a cup (maximum!) of raw mung beans makes the right quantity for a single stirfry meal for 3 or 4 people ... My first time I had sprouts coming out my ears, lol!

Your sprouts look pretty ok! the very skinny part at the end is actually a root and since mine are not disturbed they tend to grow root down through the dishtowel and I can kind of cut off extra root, lol! Apparently in asia, they actually hand trim each one!! I also rinse them when they are done and do my best to get out most of the green seed skins ..

Reminds me .. I just spent the day at the beach and should probably go give my batch a look and a rinse!

I love mung bean sprout too!
Allot of the local supermarkets have stopped selling all sprouts because of the ecoli problem. I used to make a chinese cabbage salad with them similar to your recipe Merienda.